Achieve your goals. Design your life.

To say you feel like nothing’s happening in your life does not make sense. You might say, “Well, that’s rich, smart-ass. I know nothing’s happening.” But have you considered the possibility that it’s only you who thinks that? That it isn’t an objective truth you’re making it to be? Well, that’s a good start.

That you feel that way might only be the result of a few (or many) events that seemed to have connived to lead you to believe that indeed, you’re just a piece of nothing.

Here are seven things I want you to remember if somehow you’re caught in this “unmistakable” situation.

There’s no way you can remove stress from your life. You won’t be able to get rid of all of your stressors, all the time. If you think you’ve been “failing” on that part—on not being capable of avoiding the ever-present nuisance that is stress—perhaps you’ve only been dealing with it the wrong way.

It sucks. But the good news is that there are healthy ways to deal with stress.

Not All Stress Is Bad

It’s an evolutionary fact that stress yields the fight-or-flight response. In other words, stress makes us uncomfortable—sometimes sweaty-much uncomfortable—just so we could get out of our zone to think of solutions for a potentially dangerous situation.

Have you been a lazy piece of gumball all your life? Are you the neurotic type that tends to sleep late at night…because you simply (and badly) need yourself entertained? Have you found the job you somehow don’t dislike at all but find it hard to get to work when it’s time to?

If you answered yes to all these questions, then yay, believe it or not, I used to be just like you—and sometimes still am. Even though I can tell I’ve changed a lot after deciding to take control of my life, I can’t fight the occasional relapse.

Passively living your life is dangerous. Maybe you already know too well how that is, maybe not. Perhaps you have to fulfill some conditions so you can move towards your goals of living independently…and free. That’s a good direction.

On the other hand, it might seem you already have it all. This may be worse. If you have everything—especially if you didn’t earn it—you may be deprived of the very basic human capability to thrive.

In any case, there’s only one thing you can control: yourself. Regardless of your circumstances. Maybe you just had no idea.

One thing’s for sure: I wish I had known about SMART Goals when I was twelve. But perhaps that’s one of the reasons why SMART Goals were invented—to make up for all the lost time in which people had no idea about them.

The idea of SMART Goals has permeated almost all spheres of life: the workplace, business, education, medicine, even parenting… But the most important perhaps is its effect on our personal lives.

We shouldn’t simply go through life without any idea where we’re going. You must have a plan, especially if you’re with people who are unbelievably pessimistic about the world.

From time to time you might think, “What the fart am I doing?” Or maybe you simply get bored. Or you might think there’s no point in doing that thing that’s supposed to be wonderful.

These epiphany-like moments are precisely why I decided to write this post. It’s nice to remind ourselves about the power of setting goals. It’s ever-important because sometimes there’s this weird sense of entitlement; we should be having what we deserve already. After all, we’re working hard for it, right?

Unfortunately—especially if you’re just starting out—it’s not the case. There’s simply this magical and bitter thing we call “life” that manages to get in the way.

Self-discipline is boring. It’s a trait that, ironically, seems to require constant change; thus, self-discipline can also be difficult. It can tire you, make you loathe yourself, and trigger some unwanted and unneeded mental gymnastics. It might not be worth any ounce of your being.

We find leadership everywhere—whether we like it or not, even when it doesn’t seem necessary.

The word leadership seems to be a buzzword, too. We can’t blame it, though; a lot could be at stake just because of the leadership, whether it’s of a small business or a huge empire.

However, one thing caught my attention: personal leadership. I didn’t understand what “personal” exactly meant in this curious term.

Is it about leading yourself, as if to say it’s personal to you? Is it about leading others on a personal level? Or is it perhaps about treating things in a personal manner rather than the usual uptight/corporate/formal way of living life in the fast lane?

If I asked you, “Can you say you don’t have any regrets in your life?” what would you say? I would then annoy you with a follow-up question, “Are you sure?” Then you might think I’m being condescending, but the truth is I only wanted you to rethink whether you understand what it really means to have regrets.

In this article I want to shed light on all the (hopefully helpful) mantras we hear everywhere:

No regrets! YOLO! Carpe diem!

What’s the fuss all about? Do people who say them or have them tattooed on their foreheads know what’s up? Or are they just wanting to do something “daring,” at the risk of having even more regrets?

The problem with sleep is that everybody loves it, but many procrastinate on it.

Procrastination is about something we do not want to do.

Do that homework? Start that article? Commute to the gym? Or just take a walk? These can all be troublesome. It’s only natural to procrastinate on these until perhaps a couple of days before the deadline—if there is one.